LePage preparing for move to Blaine House

The Blaine House, Maine's governor's mansion, is seen Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010, in Augusta, Maine. Gov.-elect Paul LePage, who will be sworn into office on Jan. 5, has started to move his personal items into the house. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The Associated Press

Posted Dec. 22, 2010, at 2:11 p.m.

AUGUSTA, Maine — As if he doesn’t have enough to juggle with his transition and wrapping up work at his two jobs, Gov.-elect Paul LePage sold his home this week and his family is preparing to move into the Blaine House.

It may have been tempting for LePage and his wife to stay in Waterville, 20 miles from Augusta, as Angus King did when he lived in Brunswick while he served as governor. But that was never a consideration for LePage’s family.

“They were always going to live in the Blaine House,” Dan Demeritt, LePage’s press secretary, said Wednesday.

The LePage family says it makes sense to live in the Blaine House because LePage, a self-described workaholic, will be putting in long hours and his commute would be a short walk to and from the State House across the street. The LePages’ Waterville house, which was in his wife’s name, sold for $215,000, Demeritt said.

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LePage will wrap up his dual jobs as Waterville’s mayor and general manager of the Marden’s surplus and salvage by year’s end.

LePage and his wife, Ann, will move into the seven-bedroom governor’s mansion on Jan. 2, three days before the inauguration. Joining them will be their 22-year-old daughter, Lauren; Ann’s mother, Rita DeRosby; and their Jack Russell mixed-breed dog, Baxter. Ann LePage and her mother will spend part of the winter in Florida.

The Blaine House was built by retired ship’s captain James Hall in 1833, a year after the State House opened. It changed hands several times before being purchased by James G. Blaine, who went on to serve as U.S. House speaker and secretary of state. It was donated to the state by his daughter, Harriet Blaine Beale.

Since its donation as executive mansion, all governors have lived there except for King and James Longley, who commuted from Lewiston, said Earle Shettleworth, state historian.

Like past governors, the LePage family will put its own mark on the house. LePage, and avid wood worker, wants to turn one of the garage bays into a woodworking shop, Demeritt said.